Rumor: Disney To Make More Diversity Changes To Their Parks Including Tiki Room, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Country Bears

John F. Trent |

Jan 27, 2021

A brand new rumor claims that Disney will continue to make massive diversity changes to multiple rides in their parks including Tiki Room, Peter Pan’s Flight, and Country Bears.

This rumor, which comes from Disney scooper WDW Pro at Pirates and Princesses, comes on the heels of Disney putting up disclaimers essentially describing multiple of their classic films like Peter Pan, Dumbo, and The Aristocrats as racist.

Not only do they have disclaimers describing these films as racist, but they have also removed them from any profile that is a Kids Profile.

You can see below that when you search Peter Pan on a Kids Profile, the original Peter Pan film from 1953 does not show up. Only Peter Pan Return To Neverland appears.

This new rumor also comes shortly after Disney announced they would be making significant changes to their Jungle Cruise rides at both Walt Disney World and Disneyland.

Carmen Smith, the Creative Development & Inclusion Strategies executive of Walt Disney Imagineering explained why they were making changes to Jungle Cruise.

She stated, “As Imagineers, it is our responsibility to ensure experiences we create and stories we share reflect the voices and perspectives of the world around us. With Jungle Cruise, we’re bringing to life more of what people love – the humor and wit of our incredible skippers, while making needed updates.”

And the rumor comes less than a year after the company revealed they would reimagine Splash Mountain.

Smith also explained why they were reimagining Splash Mountain, “We continually evaluate opportunities to enhance and elevate experiences for our guests. It’s important that our guests be able to see themselves in the experiences we create.”

Smith continued, “Because we consider ourselves constant learners, we go to great lengths to research and engage cultural advisors and other experts to help guide us along the way.”

“I am incredibly proud to see this work continue to move forward with great support from leadership across Disney,” Smith concluded.

As for the actual rumor, WDW Pro details, “What we’re hearing, and working to confirm, is that there are more attractions planned to receive changes – things like the Tiki Room, Country Bears, etc.”

The scooper adds, “We can just about guarantee that Peter Pan’s Flight is going to change.”

As described by the official Disney World website, Peter Pan’s Flight is “one of the few remaining attractions that was operational on opening day in 1955.”

The attraction “is inspired by Walt Disney’s 1953 animated classic, Peter Pan, which in turn was based on J.M. Barrie’s play and book of the same name about a 12-year old boy who refuses to grow up.”

Given Disney now claims that the film is racist, it’s hard not to believe that they wouldn’t want to change the ride that is based on the film.

WDW Pro claims this movement within Disney to radically alter their classic rides and label their own films as racist is part of something called the Ideation Summit.

The scooper explains, “It was spearheaded by Mrs. Carmen Smith. And the root of this D&I [Diversity & Inclusion] initiative is the message that without the type of diversity and inclusion that Disney execs propose, you can’t be as creative as you need to be to keep the company moving forward.”

“So if Disney is pushing this concept hard, it’s easy to see why an employee might believe that diversity is, indeed, more supreme than merit. It’s also easy to see why Walt Disney Imagineering suddenly changed a large degree of their focus a few years ago,” he adds.

However, while WDW Pro claims that Disney is planning big changes to a number of their rides in their parks in the United States, they have no plans to make these changes in their parks in China.

WDW Pro writes, “Simultaneous to this “Diversity Ideation” concept they’re emphasizing now in the domestic parks, they’re going to the opposite direction with China.”

“We do not believe there are any attempts to diversify the Chinese parks or the Chinese offerings of Disney with more displays of ethnic and religious minorities,” he continues.

The scooper goes on to detail, “There’s actually a crazy rumor in that regard that I hope to cover in the coming days. But this is a two-pronged approach by Disney: go very far in one direction in the US while going the other direction in China.”

What do you make of this latest rumor? Do you think Disney will continue to change their classic rides? What do you make of the fact they are planning to do the opposite in China?